admin
. Freedom Mupanedemo
For Philip Nhlabathi and his wife, every night is a nightmare, his house is a haunted one and the unthinkable can strike any time, especially during the night.
While sleeping in his bedroom with wife Beatrice, or just relaxed in their dining room to kill time, bricks are often hurled from nowhere hitting everyone within the house at will. Mysterious eggs fall from nowhere in the ceiling-less roof, messing the floor of the two-roomed house.
The brick attacks are so painful that whenever the calamity strikes, the old couple spends the whole night seething in pain but as the night wears away for dawn, the pain disappears leaving them feeling normal with no swollen faces nor body bruises to show for the previous nighta��s assault.
a�?In the morning everyone wakes up normal. There will be no pain from the previous nighta��s brick bashing and the bricks that we would have felt hitting us would have disappeared without trace.A� My wife at times would be feeling tired and dizzy but with no visible bruises,a�? said Nhlabathi when a Zimpapers Syndication news team visited his house in Gwerua��s Mkoba 13 recently.
Strange and unexplainable as it might sound, but this is what Nhlabathi (67) and his wife Beatrice (62) have been subjected to since 2012.
Since then, their mysterious house has never attracted a visitor as relatives shun them owing to these extraordinary happenings. Their four children are grown up men and women with three of them now based in South Africa.
Nhlabathi said the strange happenings would occur once or twice a month since 2012 and efforts to enlist the services of prophets or na��angas (witchdoctors) to try and help them out have been futile.
He said their woes turned worse recently when his house was gutted down by a mysterious fire after he engaged a self-proclaimed prophet to cleanse it.
a�?It all started in 2012 but I would seek na��angas, prophets or fortune tellers to try and help me out of this strange situation. The problem would disappear for months but when we are about to forget about it, dozens of eggs will fall from the roof, messing all the rooms except the toilet. This is often followed by brick attacks and my wife usually cries out, a�?yowe ndatemwa nechidhina! (I have been hit by a brick)a��.
a�?Soon I would also feel the same bricks hitting me all over, forcing us to storm out of the house,a�? explained a devastated Nhlabathi.
He said the problem recurred recently and soon after engaging a self-proclaimed prophet for the umpteenth time to try and cleanse the house, it was gutted by a fierce mysterious fire the following night.
a�?As soon as the prophet we had asked to help us left after cleansing the house, it caught fire the following night. The fire was preceded by the usual falling of eggs out of the blue and the brick pelting. As we fled the brick attack with my wife, a huge fire engulfed the whole house and everything was burnt,a�? narrated Nhlabathi.
He said his traumatised wife had since left for South Africa where some of their children were now based.
But Nhlabathi insisted he would not flee from the house, which he said he bought through a rent-to-buy arrangement with Gweru City Council in the 1970s.
He is yet to improve and extend the house, which is still in its original two-roomed block state while several other neighbours who bought their houses under the same scheme from council have since made improvements to their houses.
a�?I applied for a house to Gweru City Council like everyone used to do then in the early 1970s and was finally allocated this house in 1978. I started staying at this house on 18 April 1978 and never had a problem until 2012. It was built by the Gweru City Council and I have never done anything on it. But since 2012 this mysterious development has been happening at this house but I have no other home to run to,a�? he wailed.
Nhlabathi said since the house got burnt in the mysterious fire early last month, he has been sleeping in the roofless structure.
a�?I have nowhere to run to. I am no longer employed. I bought this house when I was still working at the now defunct Zimcast in Gweru and this has been my home since 1978. Unfortunately this is what I am faced with now. I now sleep in a corner and the whole house is water logged because there is no roof. You can imagine how I survive with the rains falling like this but I have no choice,a�? he continued.
He said he recently received a few blankets and clothing donations through the office of the Midlands provincial affairs minister, Jason Machaya.
a�?At least I now have blankets and some clothes after the office of Midlands resident minister sourced them from donors. My biggest challenge, however, is to have my roof replaced,a�? said Nhlabathi.
He appealed to well-wishers for roofing material so that he could at least repair the burnt roof.
Minister Machaya acknowledged that his office was aware of Nhlabathia��s predicament and was currently looking for donors to try and help repair the damaged house.
a�?Nhlabathi has problems with his haunted house and this has been happening for years now. When it eventually caught fire, the PA (provincial administrator) went with a team to assess the damage and now we are reaching out to donors to try and help out this troubled family,a�? he said.
a�� Zimpapers Syndication
Online Reporter